100 best first lines from novels

[vodkazvictim]

I haven't read Notes From Underground in years

 

[titsrock]

I've read many of those. I think Virginia Woolf's line from "Orlando" is awesome. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's line is also awesome.

But my all-time fav opening line (and one of my fav novels ever)
"Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this
world but a woman has been at the bottom of it." William Makepeace Thackeray "Barry Lyndon"

 

[tiger1977]

I was disappointed not to see S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders on the list.

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home."